The Caribbean presence in North America predates the American Revolution. Not only were slaves who had been born "seasoned" in the Caribbean sold to American plantations, but free Blacks also migrated to the North American continent. Immigrant Prince Hall, a free Black from Barbados, became the father of African secret societies in the United States by starting Masonic African Lodge No. 1 in Boston on July 3, 1776. In 1827 a Jamaican, John B. Russwurm, later one of the founders of Liberia, was the first Black to graduate from an American college. Throughout the 1800s, West Indians continued to distinguish themselves in the United States. In the early 1900s many more Caribbean immigrants came to the United States via Panama, where they were used as labor force in the building of the Canal.

Until 1965, discriminatory immigration laws kept the influx of Caribbean peoples into the United States strictly controlled. The New Immigration Act of 1965 resulted in a dramatic increase in Caribbean immigrants, but the percentage of Caribbean peoples to the total U.S. population remains relatively small.